Letter: Better Solutions to Our Traffic Problems Have Been Identified

Published on: 6 Oct, 2022
Updated on: 10 Oct, 2022

The preferred “Y Option”

From: Bibhas Neogi

Civil engineer

In response to: How Can This Madcap Proposal be Explained?

I am actually losing patience with Guildford Borough Council’s quirky thinking about how to deal with the traffic problems.

Why can’t they accept that better solutions have been identified and stop wasting rate payers’ money on consultants?

The councils, GBC and SCC, should work together to:

1. Build a new east-west route;
2. Build a one-way bridge behind the Crown Court building;
3. Build footbridges – one to the north side of Farnham Road Bridge and another next to the Town Bridge;
4. Realign southbound lanes of Onslow Street by shifting it eastwards to make room for riverside regeneration;
5. Reopen Town Bridge with two lanes one-way westbound to join the A3100;
6. Make Park Street two-way with two lanes northbound and one lane southbound;
7. Introduce a right turn at the bottom of Farnham Road Bridge;
8. Widen Bedford Road, Onslow Street and Bridge Street footway to facilitate a better pedestrian route to and from the railway station;
9. Widen Walnut Tree Close up to the junction with Station View and make it one-way up to the new bridge over the river;
10. Make Walnut Tree Close southbound one way down to the new bridge;
11. Locate all cycle lanes as shown by blue lines on my website;
12. Invite developers to build these structures and roads by allowing them to build apartments, en-route where appropriate, to contribute towards the cost.

Responses to Letter: Better Solutions to Our Traffic Problems Have Been Identified

Ben Paton Reply

October 6, 2022 at 8:24 am

Succinct, to the point and free advice.

Worth the £3 million that the council wants to pay some consultants – whose qualifications probably include not having any prior knowledge of Guildford!

Unfortunately, R4GV has transformed itself into a political party and now suffers from tin-ear syndrome.
Wayne Smith Reply

October 7, 2022 at 12:34 pm

I admire Bibhas Neogi’s patience in persisting with putting forward ideas to improve Guildford’s long standing traffic issues but it’s pretty apparent that GBC and SCC both suffer from “Not invented here” syndrome.
- Laura Brown Reply
  
  October 10, 2022 at 5:48 pm
  
  Lots of this makes great sense, thank you!
  
  Exception being Walnut Tree Close. If you live on the Stoughton and Worplesdon side of town you now cannot access the town rail station without going round and round (I now use Woking)and, at busy times, there is a vast queue of traffic at Ladymead lights, people trying to leave Lidl on Saturday simply had to block the main road and prevent 2 further lanes of traffic from progressing as the lane they needed was at a standstill.
Bibhas Neogi Reply

October 9, 2022 at 5:52 am

My website where more details with sketches describe the suggested 12 actions can be found in https://kvisit.com/Pg/yYsC

I had worked for the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency for almost all my working life. I never worked for Surrey County Council but I had extensive dealing with it during the Bridge assessment and strengthening programme (1985-1997) overseen by me for the SE England counties. I know Town Bridge has been strengthened to carry highway loading.
Bibhas Neogi Reply

October 26, 2022 at 10:14 am

There is only so much that could be covered in a letter or a comment. In the list of 12 items in my letter I could have included what would be needed to create an attractive riverside area.

A new east-west route would take away the traffic that now has to go through the gyratory and this should enable Friary Bridge to be closed to traffic. This means that pedestrians and cyclists would be able to easily access the riverside from the railway station and the west. The redesigned routes would also allow easier access from the town centre and the bus station over a crossing of the two-lane Onslow Street southbound traffic.

It would be possible to relocate North Street market stalls on the closed Friary Bridge and thus creating an attractive area for shoppers and visitors alike. Such a design is shown in the link: https://kvisit.com/Pg/oI8C

Two-lane northbound Millbrook traffic is to be diverted over the re-opened Town Bridge and Park Street is to be made two-lane northbound and one-lane southbound all the way together with a widened west footway and a new cycle lane. A right turn at the bottom of Farnham Road Bridge would take the traffic towards Godalming whereas Bridge Street would be reduced to two-lanes together with a wider north footway and a new cycle lane. The document referred to in my earlier comment has these details.